Saturday, May 20, 2017

My husband has been very weak today.

Here are the doorstep pictures. I need another hour or
so out there before we can slouch back and just worry about watering and
feeding. The trough on the left, with the dead broccoli, needs to be cleaned
out and replenished with fresh compost and the sowing of salads. That’s
the big job, but there are a couple of others. Notice the strawberry pot.

The excitement, at the moment, is the quince tree in
the upper right. I have had it for about a year – I have always wanted a quince
tree. It bloomed beautifully and abundantly. I was out there with my soft
brush, helping pollination along.

Many of the faded flowers have fallen. But many others have
not. I don’t need a large crop – half a dozen quinces would probably be more
than enough. I’m thinking Middle Eastern tagines. So I’m holding my breath over
those un-fallen flowers.

As for knitting, I have advanced the Polliwog to the
point where I am going to start the short-rowing for the back on the next row. One
of those situations where one thinks, is that about it? Or should I rib two
more rows? The leitmotif of an
anxious day.

I also watched a bit more Andrew & Andrea – I’m up
to the end of 2016, and have already cherry-picked a lot of the 2017’s, so –
not much more. I’m currently watching the interview with Deborah Newton: most
interesting. (Why do I know her name so well?) She has published two books
relatively recently – “Finishing School”, about finishing; and an equally
clever title about measuring and swatching and achieving fit.

Maybe those are the books I should buy, instead of
Arne & Carlos on knitting birds. (But Pom Pom – comment yesterday – if you
have the slightest interesting in knitting birds, this is clearly one for you.
Knitter magazine, mentioned yesterday, has a fairly routine pattern for a tea
cosy from A&C, with a – European – robin perched on top. For the robin, and
it’s delightful, you have to buy the book.)

But I doubt if I have any ambition to become a couture
finisher, any more than to knit birds.

10 comments:

I too can recommend this book, having bought the first edition in the early '90s. There seem to be quite a few bargain-price used copies available, at Amazon US at any rate.-- Gretchen (aka stashdragon)

We have a flowering quince in our backyard most years we get a few quinces on it but they never ripen. They just stay green and hard as rocks then fall off the branch. Hope you have better luck with yours.

I was waiting for them to get "apple" like. You can't buy them in a regular grocery store here in Toronto and except in a jelly I haven't eaten one.(that I know of anyway) Hopefully there will be a few this year for me to experiment with.

Your front step is beautiful. So nice to see such greenery after my own long and dreary winter and extended spring.

Your comments on Arne & Carlos' birds prompted me to share a few pictures with you as I have been quite smitten with the wee beasties recently. I so wanted this book that I very nearly ordered it before the English version was available. Thankfully, I was able to wait and since it arrived, I have been spending time with it each day.